Number Twenty Three Be Quiet
23
thunder rage lightning
finally it all blows over
and then the moon
Lesson # 23
High winds don’t last forever.
Thunderstorms pass eventually.
There is an arc to everything.
Everything arises and then passes away.
Pay attention to the flow.
Rise with the beginning,
radiate at the zenith,
and let go
as it begins to fade away.
Trust.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number 23 Be quiet
Just use a few simple words
Then shut up
Don’t go on and on trying to make your point
High winds don’t last all morning
Thunderstorms don’t last all day
In nature everything changes
So speak without dominating and then listen
When you cultivate your connection with everything
YOU become less the center of your attention
People who focus on power become obsessed with power
People who focus on helping
lose themselves through helping too much.
When you cultivate skillful action
motivated by integrity and love
you become love and integrity
When you embrace the fact that everything will change
and that all you cherish will eventually be forgotten in time
then slowly you will learn
to embrace this precious moment
Trust
It will all work out
NUMBER TWENTY THREE
With few words affirm the Self.
A great wind does not blow all the morning,
A heavy wind does not continue all day.
Why is this so?
It is because of the inter-relations of Heaven and Earth.
If Heaven and Earth cannot make things last long.
How much less can man?
Therefore he who follows the service of Tao is one with Tao,
He who is virtuous is one with Teh,
He who fails is one with failure.
He who is one with Tao,
Tao shall also claim him.
He who is one with Teh
Teh shall also claim him.
He who is one with failure,
Failure shall also claim him.
Faith that is not complete is not faith.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number 23 (commentary) How do I loosen the strangle hold my personality has on me?
Jennifer Stone used to end her political and cultural monologues on the Berkely radio station KPFA with this saying, “Go easy. And if you can’t go easy, go as easy as you can.” Good advice.
Every storm eventually ends. At the end of the marathon, they take down the finish line and go home. Everything is in the Crucible of Change.
Stop fighting so hard: fighting to win, fighting to be right, fighting to be seen, even fighting to know the truth. There is a joke that goes: The problem isn’t that I think that I am very special, and the problem isn’t that I think I am a worm. The problem is that I think I am a very special worm. Is that you?
All that is required in this lifetime is that, moment by moment, you take what you hope is the skillful, right action. Be kind to yourself and others when it all goes haywire. Remember, eventually, to laugh. Come on, you’re only human.
Tangent and Tool #23, Relax, it’s all going to shit.: A question and a reflection: “How can I relax when the assholes are ruining the Earth and everything on it?” How do we manage the panic we have when we see the catastrophe that we are heading towards and the number of people who ignore it, deny it, or even are trying to speed it up, just to make a buck? That fear is real and must be faced head on. It is true that many people do not care yet that they are destroying the ecosystem that keeps them alive. It is true that some people don’t care what happens to future generations just as long as they can prosper. It is true that whatever we do will be too little too late to avoid many major cataclysms. Face this and don’t turn away from it. We are charging towards our own extinction and not much that we are doing is going to slow it down. So, how can we stay sane knowing this? Feel every feeling that arises: the fear, the helplessness, the rage and the despair. Let them arise and then let them subside. Every emotional experience has an arc if we just stay with it and let it run its course. Then go out and do what you can anyway, because it feels better to do something than to join the many who are doing nothing. Be kind to those around you. Teach children the tools they will need to live a life in continual crisis. And love the natural beauty that is here, all around you. That beauty may pass, but right now it is here, and it is beautiful.